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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

academics & research

New chair of Poynter delivers speech on journalistic responsibility

capoynter

Roger Cohen, the new chair of the Poynter Center at IU, gave a speech Thursday evening on the responsibility of journalists to rely only on facts in a politicized media environment.

IU-Bloomington Provost Lauren Robel summarized Cohen’s journalistic accomplishments and gave a brief history of the Poynter Center and its purpose before turning the microphone over to journalism professor Elaine Monaghan, who has also reported internationally, and introduced Cohen.

“I’m proud to be a member of his tribe of foreign correspondents,” 
Monaghan said.

Cohen began by relating his childhood in South Africa and his experience with Apartheid and how it influenced his decision to become a journalist.

“The worst is not inevitable,” Cohen said. “It’s not. Miracles, such as the South African miracle, the end of the Cold War, they do happen ... Whatever the grievances of the past, the lives of our children are more important, and a better world can be built for them.”

Cohen described the influence of social media on the general election and journalism in general.

“Polarization, radicalization, fragmentation, isolation and, on the other side of the scale, a beautiful thing: the sum of creativity at our fingertips,” he said on the topic of social media.

He also described the importance of old-fashioned journalism, covering the most significant stories in person in order to get the most complete story.

“BTBW,” Cohen said. “Being there to bear witness. What you don’t see, you don’t know.”

He explained the formation of ideological tribes in America that influenced the media coverage of the presidential candidates. Journalists, Cohen said, had been failing to report on Donald Trump’s greater scandals earlier in his candidacy because of the fear of looking biased. This, he said, had created a false equivalency effect that overlooked facts and was partisan in its efforts to remain nonpartisan.

“The media failed to move outside the frame fast enough to cover Trump,” Cohen said. “We failed. Trump has moved a needle. We needed to move it too. And we were too slow.”

Cohen acknowledged that Hillary Clinton had also been involved in several scandals and should not be free from scrutiny but that Trump was a much worse candidate.

“I think the old maxim, ‘Cover the hell out of the story without fear or favor’ must still be our byword,” Cohen said. “Giving Clinton a pass cannot be the answer to the Trump travesty. But while Clinton is imperfect, Trump is awful. The most powerful job in the world was not made for a man on a power trip.”

Cohen urged the audience to base their beliefs on facts and to listen to them even when they went against deeply held political beliefs. To conclude his speech, he spoke to the journalists of the country to remind them that their greatest responsibility was always to the truth.

“In the whirlwind of this media revolution, let’s recall that not everything has changed,” Cohen said. “We journalists are condemned to journey between the truth of us and they, all passionately held, in order to paint the truths of reality. There can be no false equivalence in facts. They are stubborn, they are unyielding and they are 
precious.”

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